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Enlarge ImageRequest to buy this photoBarbara J. Perenic | DISPATCHTyrell Howard of New Albany is chased by Dominic Brown, left, and Daniel Stricker of Worthington Kilbourne. Howard intercepted a pass and blocked a kick.

Nearly anyone who watched Worthington Kilbourne play New Albany last night in an Ohio Capital
Conference Capital Division game would think a rematch could loom in the Division II playoffs.

On a chilly evening amid a playoff atmosphere, Kilbourne turned the tide with a bevy of big
defensive plays to beat undefeated, top-ranked New Albany 14-12.

The Wolves limited the Eagles to 8 total yards in their final three series, and New Albany
quarterback Tanner Cline completed just 1 of 13 passes for 5 yards in the game.

“Our game plan was to control the line of scrimmage, get the lead and make them put it in the
air,” Kilbourne defensive back Chandler Bridges said. “It was a little bit nerve-racking seeing
them get the ball three or four times late in the game, but we knew we’d pull through in the end.
We worked too hard for it.”

With 14.6 seconds left in the first half, Griffin Dahn scored on a 1-yard quarterback sneak to
give Kilbourne (8-1, 6-0) a 7-3 lead. .

“To me, that was the pivotal play of the game,” Kilbourne coach Vince Trombetti said. “The
momentum had been going back and forth, with each team’s defense making a big stop here and there.
To get the lead on them was huge because we have all the confidence in the world in our defense.”&
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Dahn hit Keaton Reinhart on a 28-yard TD pass midway through the third quarter to extend
Kilbourne’s lead to 14-6.

New Albany (8-1, 5-1) drove 55 yards to score at the end of the third quarter. Cline completed
his only pass, a 5-yard strike to Ross Henze, on a third-and-goal to make it 14-12. But the
two-point conversion pass failed.

The Eagles had their chances in the fourth quarter but couldn’t convert. Tyrell Howard blocked a
34-yard field-goal attempt and also intercepted Dahn, but Kilbourne countered by recovering a
fumble on a punt and having Joe Davis intercept Cline near midfield.

Ultimately, Kilbourne’s defense dictated the outcome, keeping New Albany at bay in three series
in the final 6:22. Cline went 0 of 9, and Bridges tipped away a potential big gain on fourth down
with 2:44 left.

“They gained some yardage on us at some points of the game, but we made some adjustments and
really came up big at the end of the game,” Davis said. “We live for that moment late in the game
when we needed to stop them several times. We were really well prepared. We knew what was coming.
We just had to play our game.”

Although Wyatt Johnston gashed Kilbourne for 94 yards on nine carries, the Wolves limited the
Eagles to 163 yards on 39 carries — far from the 309-yard average they had coming in. Kilbourne
kept possession for about 29 minutes to 19 for New Albany.

New Albany got strong efforts on defense from Hayden Hutton, Nick Clemons and Howard — a son of
former Ohio State standout Ty Howard.

“They have a very sound scheme,” New Albany coach Pat Samanich said. “We knew what we were
getting into. We made a couple adjustments, and we were one guy away, one guy not finishing his
block. They did a great job of securing our edge. We just had to put more drives together.

“I’m so proud of our effort, but football comes down to who’s not going to make mistakes, and we
made mistakes.”

Both teams were handicapped by losses to key players.

New Albany receiver-defensive back Joe Siegenthaler suffered a knee injury and missed the second
half. Kilbourne defensive back-receiver Seth Hill sat out the second half because of concussion
symptoms.